How much is your time worth to you? While that might seem like an odd question, the answer can have a huge impact on how you live your life. It’s an old cliché, but “time is money” and the more time that you spend doing things that are unproductive, the less time you will have to put towards projects that generate revenue, or increase your quality of life.
Have you ever given any thought to the quantity of time you spend checking emails? How many hours a day do you spend cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, or running errands? Do you find yourself doing things over to get them “perfect”? How much time have you spent on Facebook in the past day, or week? It may not seem like it in the moment, but these unpleasant, unproductive and unnecessary tasks can add up to significant amounts of wasted time. Those hours could be better spent doing something that brings you more income, such as writing or photography – or doing something that would bring you enjoyment, like spending time with your children.
The simple acknowledgement that “time is money” and that you need to increase your efficiency, will not help you become more productive. Productivity is all about prioritizing. Try tracking your daily activities for a day or two, writing them down. Once you have compiled a list of activities, decide which ones to do yourself, which ones to delegate, and which ones you need to cut out. Determining exactly how much an hour of your time is worth can really help you to determine which activities are really worth your time, and which ones you can do without.
Think about it this way: if you work 40 hours a week, 50 weeks out of the year, then each year you work 2000 hours. With a salary of $80,000, your time is worth $40 an hour. If it usually takes you four hours to clean your house but you could pay someone to clean it for $100, it would be worth your while, because you could spend that time working and you would still be making a $60 profit. Or, you could look at it another way: if you have a busy lifestyle and never seem to have enough time for your family, paying someone to clean the house saves you four hours that you can spend on quality time with your family instead.
Again, the real key to productivity is making decisions that will bring the most value to your life. Depending on the choices you make, there will be differences in money, production or overall enjoyment that any activity will bring. Look at your goals and determine what is worth your time, and what isn’t. Outsourcing certain errands or household tasks could end up saving you time and energy to put towards enhancing your profits, or your quality of life. Time is your most valuable resource – spend it wisely.
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